Priscilla Robinson
A short report this week as I am away from home without reliable internet access. I have not completed the snapshot because this is a day early and I may not have internet access tomorrow.
As they say, we live in interesting times.
India certainly is under the pump at the moment, although their overall attack rate (at ~1.25%) still lags a long, long way behind many other countries (see the list). The front runner remains Chechia (15.1%), although several countries – USA, Sweden, Israel – are running at just under 10%.
SEARO is having some problems after such a long and well-controlled time. Resource-poor Laos is the country of greatest concern this week to me, with a sixfold increase in numbers, although fatalities have not risen as much – and absolutely no publicity either. Thailand and PNG have also had increases – newspapers might even call them surges – with about 50% more fatalities this week than the whole outbreak so far.
Rumours always run when numbers flick up; and I know these jumps are mainly blamed on migrant workers etc etc, but I cannot find anything to support these rumours on any government websites.
Otherwise, immunisation roll-outs are terribly patchy. Europe and the USA are doing quite well with good spots here and there – e.g. Maldives, UAE, Israel – and a number of countries have now vaccinated around 1/3-1/2 of their populations with at least one dose. Some countries however still need to get going. Including the one I live in!
There probably will not be a report next week as I am unlikely to have internet access then either.
Keep safe, and get one of those safe vaccines if you can!
Image: Rafiq Maqbool/AP
About Dr Priscilla Robinson and The CODE Update
Dr Robinson is a public health epidemiologist with particular interests in international health and communicable diseases, and public health competencies. She has worked in health departments in England and Australia, has managed public health teaching programmes, and taught and researched many aspects of public health epidemiology and policy in many countries. She is an adjunct Associate Professor at LaTrobe University, and to stop herself being bored is an editor of PHAA’s journal ANZJPH, and holds board positions (almost all unpaid) on various NGOs, journals, and at her local hospital. Otherwise, 10 acres of untamed bushland on a hill in South Gippsland makes weight-bearing gym exercise and strength training a bit redundant.
The CODE Update is a new regular feature on the Intouch blog to keep readers informed of COVID-19 developments around the world.
The CODE update originally began at the start of the SARS CoV-2 pandemic as a way of explaining it to Priscilla’s friends and family who happen to live all over the world, and who were being bombarded with information and misinformation in their own countries. The CODE Update provides links to practical materials and papers written for people who are not versed in the language of outbreaks and epidemic curves. It is sent out every week, and includes a short commentary to provide context to the numbers included in the spreadsheets.
Note: Whilst every attempt is made to transcribe all data faithfully, every now and again mistakes are made and not noticed until the next update. Also, on occasion numbers are revised after posting at the source databases.
We hope you will find these updates to be a helpful tool, and the links to current information useful.